Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (proper 12): July 24, 2005.

1 Kings 3:5-12

Psalm 119:129-136

Romans 8:26-39

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Keep my steps according to your promise....
--Ps 119:133a

First Reading

"Give your servant ... an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?" Just a few months removed from an unusually divisive presidential election in which quite differing values were articulated as to what constitutes "good" and "evil," the young King Solomon's words from three millennia ago provide an opportunity to reflect on issues of political leadership and decision making from the perspective of faith. Historians debate the relative merits of Solomon's actual kingship (his reputation for polygamy, which included wives of a dazzling array of religious backgrounds, for example, is always disconcerting to those who feel compelled to defend the "biblical view of marriage"). Still, "solomonic" remains a synonym for "wise."

Similarly, today's psalmody from the 176-verse-long acrostic celebration of God's gift of Torah (better understood here as "instruction" than "law") witnesses from Israel's sapiential tradition to the goodness of God's guiding providence in humankind's everyday affairs. (See Robert Davidson, The Vitality of Worship: A Commentary on the Book of Psalms [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998], 388ff.) God's gift of Torah, in this understanding, is not a rule book so much as "the ABC of the God-centered life," a kind of spiritual primer providing a practical ethical structure in which the personally good life including the welfare of one's neighbors might be lived out.

Central to an appreciation of Israel's sapiential tradition is the understanding that wisdom is God's good gift (hence Solomon's dream-request for the gift of wisdom) rather than a human accomplishment. As the psalmist reminds us in his prayer to "keep my steps according to your promise," Torah is seen also as a kind of God-given user's manual as to how to live faithfully in the light of the covenant promise, an aid to "practicing our faith."

For a classic Old Testament theology particularly attuned to the wisdom tradition of Israel see Samuel Terrien's The Elusive Presence: The Heart of Biblical Theology (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978), 278ff. On Christian "practices" see Practicing Our Faith, ed. Dorothy Bass (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997), and Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life, ed. Dorothy Bass and Miroslav Volf (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002).

Pastoral Reflection

Jesus appears in today's Gospel reading as a teacher within Israel's wisdom tradition, telling no fewer than five pithy parables in the space of a few verses. He concludes by asking his hearers "Have you understood all this?" They unhesitatingly answer "Yes." Perhaps not as confident as his disciples that they have understood, Jesus concludes with an enigmatic epigram, which might have been taken from the Book of Proverbs: "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."

Whatever else Jesus may mean by this, it suggests to me that Jesus is commending his own imaginative yet homely storytelling mode of teaching to his followers. We preachers might well ponder Jesus' recommended technique of bringing out of our treasure (our "bag of tricks" consisting of stories, experiences, and accumulated wisdom?) "what is new and what is old" as we strive to be faithful to our calling to proclaim the gospel. Throughout the Gospels we are encountered by the indirection and metaphorical character of Jesus' preaching and teaching, which, together with his humorous and ironic creativity, drove the legalists and literalists of his day crazy. (See Fred Craddock, Overhearing the Gospel (Chalice Press, 2002), on the necessary "indirectness of preaching" and Colin E. Gunton, The Actuality of Atonement [London: T & T Clark, 1998], 27ff., on the use of metaphor in theology and proclamation. See also Patrick Henry, The Ironic Christian's Companion (New York: Riverhead, 1999).

Likening the kingdom of heaven to mustard seeds and yeast, to hidden treasure, pearls, and dragnets demonstrates not only Jesus' power of imagination but the very incarnational character of his life and message; God's revelation occurs as an "underwhelming" from below rather than an overwhelming, top-down intrusion from heaven. (See James Breech, The Silence of Jesus [Fortress, 1987], for a provocative account of Jesus' intent in speaking in parables.) If you choose to dwell on Jesus' parabolic style, the simple song "The Parables" from Robert Wilson's musical He Lived the Good Life (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1974) puts it well: "Story teller, yes, he was the story tellin' kind;/ He painted pictures in their mind,/ It was the way he let them see/ How things were really s'posed to be."

Our reading from Romans 8 contains gospel grist for any number of sermons and is a text to which we pastors resort often in times of loss and perplexity. "If God is for us, who is against us?" is a rhetorical question to which pastoral caregivers long have resorted in times of crisis, as is Paul's affirmation that "all things work together for good for those who love God." Less often, I expect, have we taken Paul up on his offer to see this text as an opportunity to address the nagging issue of predestination/election, which today's church largely ignores.

In the face of the religious pluralism that many of us now encounter daily, questions of "who's in and who's out" as far as the salvation offered by God is concerned have become pastoral questions that merit the preacher's attention in our commitment to being genuinely evangelical in our proclamation. See Paul F. Knitter, No Other Name? (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1985) as well as Douglas John Hall, Why Christian? (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1998), especially chapter 6, for discussions as to how a particularist Christian commitment to the gospel need not result in a view of salvation excluding non-Christians.

"What then are we to say about these things?" Paul asks. We need not so much provide the answer(s) as help folks encounter the Word whose Spirit, Paul says, "helps us in our weakness," interceding for us "with sighs too deep for words." I sometimes wish we in the church would recognize our captivity to words and could make room for a bit more "liturgical sighing"--maybe even from the pulpit! The Swedish composer Per Harling's "You Are Holy" (Renewing Worship Songbook #R185) sets a contemporary Sanctus to a lively samba beat that enables our praise of a God who is "always ever more than we ever understand." JR